It's so Easy to Paint Your Own Giant Wall Art
How to paint giant wall art: As well as crafting, I love to paint. Not having a formal art background has never stopped me from painting and creating.
My craft buddy Wendy and I have a thing about painting our dogs, admittedly she is a bit better at it than I am, but that doesn't stop me. By showing how Wendy painted a giant posterized portrait of her dog Lottie, I'll show you how easy it is to create your own giant wall art.
It is a bit like the painting by numbers you may have done as a child.
To create your own artwork is easier than you think, all it takes is a bit of practice and confidence. My house is full of stuff I've painted. Not because I necessarily think it's brilliant, but because I've created it and it's personal to me and my family.
After visiting art galleries and exhibitions I often come away feeling inspired. I tap into that inspiration by painting my dog Toby in the style of the artist's exhibition I have just been to.
In fact, my husband's favourite painting (chalks actually), is "the woof" instead of the scream. I painted Toby in the style of Munch after visiting the museum in Oslo, just for a bit of fun.
At Christmas I even painted a giant Christmas tree for my wall.
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A Simple Way to Paint Your Own Giant Wall Art of Your Pet
What You Need
- Giant canvas - You can either buy this from an art shop, or do what Wendy and I do which is buy our canvases in the sales or junk shops. We just then paint over the existing artwork with white emulsion paint, to create a cheap white blank canvas.
- Some form of projector, art projector, or overhead projector. You can buy overhead projectors cheap on eBay or you may be able to borrow one from a school or work.
- Paints, we tend to paint in acrylics or gouache.
Easy Way To Paint A Giant Pet Portrait
1.. First, take a picture of your pet, either with a camera or even better on your phone using one of the many photo filtering apps. Some fantastic free apps will turn any picture into geometric art.
2. Next, once you are happy with your picture print it out onto an A4 transparency. So that you can project the image onto your canvas.
3. Project the image of your pet onto the giant canvas. Then simply trace around the image with a light pencil.
4. As I mentioned in the beginning painting this giant pet portrait is a bit like painting by numbers. Using your original posterized pet portrait work out your colour chart for the wall art. Giving each colour a number and then writing the number in the right place on the canvas.
Top tip: Try and keep the number of different colours that you use to under 20. There should be this option on the posterizing app you use.
5. Next, start painting. Just start wherever you fancy and continue until finished. You may want to complete your painting over a couple of sessions.
Simply follow your paint by numbers guide. You will see your giant pet portrait come alive before your eyes.
Personally, I love Wendy's portrait of Lottie and think it looks fabulous in her house. Everyone who visits admires her artwork especially when they realize it's Lottie in the painting. I can't wait to create my own paint by numbers giant wall art of Toby.
If you like this then you may like the tutorial I did on how to create a Map Art Pet Collage portrait. Also, I have a great tutorial for embroidery on a canvas.
Lottie and Toby are often around us when we craft and we have even made them some fantastic upcycled denim dog toys to keep them occupied while we paint.
Thanks for including my tutorial on diy paint by numbers! I love how your pup art turned out!!
Your welcome I thought it would be really useful.
this is wonderful! I think I will try it with fabric! If I actually get anywhere, I will send you some pictures.
Thank you ! I would love to see them.
Wow! just Wow! Love this giant work of art. You and Wendy both are super talented! I love your different artworks of Toby, how cool is that. Thanks for breaking down how to do this, it looks simple enough and I would so love to give this a try. Somehow I see my skill level of painting ending in a major fail, but this tutorial would sure make for a great try.
Thank you ! You should give it ago it is easier than you think, like painting by numbers.
lOVE THIS PROJECT AND LOVE YOUR POST! WOW, I MAY JUST HAVE TO TRY THIS SOMEDAY!
Thank you, and definately give it ago. I bet if you do you'll be really pleased with the results.
I love this! Such a great tutorial. I love to paint art for my home and never considered posterizing a photo and painting it. I have to try this now. Thanks!
Thanks, you should definitely give it ago, the results are very satisfying.
As an art history major and a dog lover I just ADORE this! I am a bit late to the TOHOT party this week due to my college semester finals but I'm so glad that I didn't miss this. Have a wonderful week.
Thank you ! &a good luck in your finals.
What a fun idea, it looks brilliant and so straightforward to do. We don't have a furry pet so I'd have to think about what I'd do, maybe a favourite holiday location?
Thank you ! You can paint anything large using this technique.
That came out awesome! I would love to have a large wall art version of my chihuahua - I'll have to give your technique with the projector a try.
Thank you ! I'm sure your chihuahua will look great.
I really liked this idea. But you also had a great tip and that was collecting old canvases and painting over them. I'm only a beginner but appreciate your help.
Thank you, yes I'm always picking up old unwanted canvases and reprainting them.
This is amazing and you have inspired me.
I love creating things for my home or making over a found item but I have never felt confident painting art work.
You have inspired me!
Thank you for joining us at TOHOT!
Laura
White Spray Paint
Thank you ! Go for it it's worth a try, you will be surprised about what you can do.
That is pretty awesome! Pets are so important to us and I would love to have a portrait of my dog and cat. The graphic quality of this is really neat.
Happy Thoughts of Home. 😉
Thank you ! I do love having my dog as my muse as well as my running partner.
This is very fun! I've been painting animal portraits but never had the nerve to go so BIG! But maybe with the transperancy method, I could. Thanks for the tips!
Thank you! The projection does make it a lot easier.
I was just wondering how to posterize the picture. Which filter did you use on paper camera? I really love this painting and hope to recreate it of my own chihuahua terrier!
I just saw the above comment. I will try photoshop.
I really love this and now I found someone new to follow on Pinterest.
One question though. I went ahead and downloaded paper camera but can't figure out which style of drawing or picture you used. I can't seem to get a good rendition of my scruffy dog like yours.
That picture of Lottie was done on photoshop but I have used Paper camera before to get a simplified picture to paint, that it is why I recommended it as I know not everyone has access to photoshop. There are other photo apps that posterise but I haven't tried them. Let me know how you get on.